Poker Fate
by thousandyearflower
Summary: All had been peaceful, and Sakura Kinomoto, new Master of the Collection, continued her academic studies. Yet all these years later, the cards begin to disobey her? The albino transfers to her school acts eccentrically, but would that eccentricity warrant the need of a visit from both Syoran and Eriol?


The stars shone dimly down on the lawn of Clow's mansion, turning the golden brown autumn leaves black with their light, and the snap of large windows opening broke the silence of the night.

"Clow died, huh," said the female figure inclining in the high-backed chair in Clow's mansion. "Who's the new master?"

"Hmmm," said the male figure perched on the open window sill, twirling a stick in his hands.. "Some first year high-schooler, Kinomoto Sakura."

The clouds drifted back from the full moon, illuminating silver hair and leering grins.

A harsh wind suddenly blew, plucking leaves from the tree in the backyard into an aerial waltz, and the windows blew closed with a bang. The moonlight shone into the room, revealing the empty room.

Elsewhere, a fifteen-year-old Sakura, Master of the Cards, woke up with a start, and saw her Wind card hovering in the air above the Book, humming and glowing with activated power.

Dismissing it as a leak of her power, because it has happened before, Sakura went back to sleep.

[+w+]

Sakura has grown out of her roller-shoes a few years ago, and felt too lazy to buy a new pair, and Tōya got a new mountain bike, so she inherited his old bike. Today, however, she opted to walk to school, since it was a particularly breezy autumn morning.

She and all her old friends had moved on to the Seijou High School, the one beside their old school.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" chimed her friends when she walked into the class and hung her coat up.

"Good morning," she smiled back, squeezing through the haphazardly lined desks to her seat at the back of the class.

Tomoyo pulled out her chair for her, and a few minutes later both were engaged in the normal pre-class chatter with their classmates.

Tomoyo had taken to pulling the side fringes of her hair to the back, braiding them together. Her bangs didn't change, though.

Sakura had grown out her hair and cut them into layers so bangs still framed her face, but she pulled the rest into a side ponytail.

Syoran was in Hong Kong, but they still communicated through letters.

Then the door to the class slammed open, and a voice said, soft but carrying, "Is this class 2-A?"

The class fell silent and turned as one to look at the newcomer.

He was tall, with pale skin and a sharp chin, framed by wavy silver blond hair that hung in a fringe covering one ruby red eye, the rest gathered into a ponytail that draped over his shoulder.

"No," Sakura spoke up with a kind smile, "This is class 1-A. class 2-A is one floor up."

"See I told you," a female voice floated through the class, and the white-haired male backed away from the door with an apologetic smile. "Why would the second-years be on the first floor?"

"Ahhh okay okay," he backed away and revealed the girl standing behind him.

For a moment they stood side by side and Sakura realized they looked almost identical. The girl was also an albino, with pale skin, red eyes, and silvery hair. She wore hers up on a high ponytail that swished to her elbows, her fringe framing her face, revealing both red eyes as she narrowed them at her brother.

"Away with you," the girl did a shooing motion with her hand, chasing the boy away.

"Erm," Sakura spoke up when the boy disappeared beyond the door, "Could you be a transfer student…?"

"Yep," said the silver-haired girl who stepped into their class and slid the door closed, proceeding to walk right up to the podium and seating herself up on it. "Transfers, my brother and me. Too lazy to wait for homeroom in the office, so we came here by ourselves. Don't mind me." Then she pulled out a thick english book from her sling bag, and flipping it open went silent.

The class was quiet for a moment, all its inhabitants staring at the girl who had crossed her legs on the podium.

"I think she's going to give a lot of trouble to our teachers," Naoko pushed her square glasses, giving off a glint. "Akiyama-sensei is going to come in anytime now."

"I think she's cool," Chiharu cupped her cheeks, staring at the self-proclaimed transfer. "Where do you think she's from?"

"Wherever she's from, it isn't Asia," said Yamazaki. "See her face? That's a European facial structure. Do you know? They say when Europeans come to Japan as teenagers, they turn into monsters at night and eats little children!"

"No one's going to believe your tall tales anymore, Takashi!" Chiharu held up a shaking fist at her boyfriend, who immediately tried to placate her.

"But her Japanese is good, unlike that time Syoran transferred here…" Sakura tipped her head to the side with a finger to her chin.

"I guess we'll have to wait and—ah! Akiyama-sensei is here!" Tomoyo stood up first, and raised her voice. "Class, please rise!"

There was the scuffle of chairs being scraped on the ground and students scrambling back to their seats replaced the sound of talking, but as the class got ready to greet their homeroom teacher they realized that he hasn't stepped in yet.

Akiyama Juhino stood at the doorway, staring at the transfer student who wasn't in the waiting room, but sitting cross-legged on his podium, _reading_. He had seen many rebellious students in his teaching career, but this was a first.

"Regnard-san! Please get off the podium and explain yourself!" He marched into the class and rapped the reading girl sharply on the head.

"Oops!" the girl almost toppled over, but steadied her herself at the last minute and stood steady on her two feet as she looked at the teacher with a smirk and snapped a mock salute, complete with a heel clap. "Waiting in that stuffy room was too boring, sir, so we decided to explore the school beforehand, hope the staff doesn't mind."

Akiyama scoffed, "Alright, whatever. But you're staying in the front until you give that introductory speech you're supposed to make."

Ignoring the groan from the transfer student, he nodded to Tomoyo.

"Bow!"

The class bent at a ninety-degree angle and when they straightened, they chorused, "Good morning, Akiyama-sensei."

"Sit!" called Tomoyo, and the sound of chairs scraping across the floor filled the class.

The girl stood beside the podium, looking puzzled. Then she turned to the teacher and in a not-so-discreet voice, "They do that everyday? Wow. That's strict."

Akiyama whacked her head lightly with the rolled-up register, "Introduce yourself. Name, birthday, likes and dislikes. Now. While I write your katakana name on the board."

"Hai hai," the student turned to the class and bowed. "My name is Rain Regnard, nice to meet you all. I'm from England, but my family move a lot, so I've been to Taiwan, Scotland, France and Egypt, not necessarily in that order. I hope I will be with you guys for at least a year. I'm a Gemini. Please take care of me. Now, sir, where's my seat?"

Akiyama-sensei finished the last character of her name, stood up and said to the class, "Rain Regnard-san and her brother are staying in Japan due to family reasons. Please make her feel welcome."

"But sir," Rain darted to the blackboard and picked up the chalk, beginning to write the kanji for 'rain' on the board. "This is chance to teach them a different language! See, my name means 'rain', and this kanji is also the Mandarin character for 'rain', and at the same time is a direct translation of 'rain' from English!"

She beamed brightly at the teacher, who was beginning to sport a bulging vein on his temple.

"Regnard-san! Your seat shall be right at the front!" He turned to the nearest student. "Kishimori, you move to the back!"

"Eh, are you sure?" Rain returned the chalk and turned her smile full-power onto the teacher, her red eyes glinting with mischief. "I might just annoy the hell out of every teacher that come in, including you, you know."

Akiyama stared at her uncomprehendingly. How can a student be this bold?

Just as he was about to tell her off for real, there was a crash from directly above, followed by a shriek of anger.

"Ho!" Rain tipped her head to look at the ceiling, her smile morphing into a smirk. "Xerxes sure is having fun, how long has it been? Barely five minutes? He's broke his record!" She laughed, bright and innocent.

There was pin-drop silence in the class.

[+w+]

In the end, Rian was assigned a seat beside the window, two rows in front of Sakura and right beside Chiharu, who gazed at her adoringly.

When Akiyama-sensei started the roll-call, he was practically fuming.

The rest of the periods passed without much fuss, and most of the time Rain stared out at the sky, spinning a pen and catching it with a soft but clear 'schik' which placed a tick in the eyelid of their math teacher, Kiyoma Noharu.

She gave a snide comment during double history and ended up facing the wall in the back of the class for the rest of the lesson.

Lunch bell rang at the end of fifth period chemistry, and as their teacher gathered her notes and walked out of the class, the students started to crowd around Rain.

Questions descended on her like vultures to a corpse, and the pen tumbled from her fingers,

"Where have you been to, Regnard-san?"

"Are you always like that to teachers, Regnard-san?"

"You're an albino, right, Regnard-san?"

"Do you know how to speak French, Regnard-san?"

"Regnard-san, can we call you Rain?" Chiharu's question cut through the tide of others and Rain looked at her with a smile, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

And like a dam was broke, questions roared like a torrential rain down on Rain.

Sakura, sitting well back from the crowd, saw Rain start to tap her left index finger on the metal legs of the table in an irregular rhythm.

Outside, rain clouds suddenly gathered thickly, blocking out the sunlight. Wind started to howl like a mimicry of a typhoon, bending the trees and steering the leaves. There was a crack of lightning followed by the deep rumble of thunder, and the school building suddenly shook, and the lights flickered.

"We've been hit by lightning!" came Takashi's shout as the lights flickered one last time and failed to come back to life.

The wind whipped harshly, making the fence that separated the high-school from the elementary section creak and groan.

When the first raindrop hit the window, Sakura froze, her sixth sense humming like it had never before.

"Tomoyo," she hissed, grabbing her friend's hand. "This isn't ordinary rain. Every aspect of it is summoned from magic! Ancient magic!"


End file.
